Rotary vibratory feeder

ABSTRACT

A VIBRATORY CONVEYOR OF ROTARY TYPE, WHOSE BOWL-SUPPORTING SPRINGS ARE CONNECTED TO THE REACTION BASE AT A LOW LOCATION THEREOF, AND THE SEVERAL COMPONENTS OF THE BOWL-SUPPORT AND VIBRATION-ENERGIZATION ARE PROVIDED IN OPPOSITELY FACING ARRANGEMENT MAKING THE DIRECTION OF WORK-FEED EASILY REVERSIBLE.

United States Patent Inventors Appl. No,

Filed Patented Assignee ROTARY VIBRATQRY FEEDER 6 Claims, 4 Drawing Figs.

US. Cl l98/2'20AC,

' l98/220DC Int. Cl 865g 27/00 Field of Search 198/220 (C10), 220 (B40) [56] References Cited UNITED STATES PATENTS 2,964,182 12/1960 Spurlin 198/220(B40) 3,258,111 6/1966 Spurlin et a1 198/220( B40) Primary Examiner-Andres H. Nielsen Atlomey- Robert A. Spray ABSTRACT: A vibratory conveyor of rotary type, whose bowl-supporting springs are connected to the reaction base at a low location thereof, and the several components of the bowl-support and vibration-energization are provided in uppositely facing arrangement making the direction of workfeed easily reversible.

PATENTED ms I971 3; 587L833 p C5 3 30 G 26 25 3. .1. j

' GROYER .E'. BYRUIW,

MICRON 1.. DOT), CIMRLES 0- HENDRICKS and E ROBERT JENNINGS,

[MENTOR-5' A TTORNE'Y ROTARY VIBRATORY FEEDER This invention relates to vibratory feeders, which achieve an orderly work-feeding of work pieces, with also a sorting and/or positioning thereof, by vibration of a bowllike hopper having an inclined ramp up which the work-pieces travel.

Concepts of the invention provide good vibratory operativity and long spring life, by connecting the bowl-supporting springs at a low location on the reaction mass or base of the device, thereby permitting the spring length to include the overall height of the base, and yet the overall height of the device is not proportionately increased by the desired longer length of the springs.

Other concepts of the invention provide for reversibility of the work-feed, by economical means which provide that a given base, energizing means, and bowl-supporting assembly can readily be changed over to give a reverse work-feed actuatron.

In carrying out the inventive concepts, the base of the device is provided, for each of the bowl-supporting springs, with a pair of selectively usable recesses, adjacent the lowermost portion of the base; and a mounting lug, to which is connected the lower end of the respective bowl-support spring, is positioned in the desired recess and is connected to the base. Convenient means permit the selective interchange of each such lug in each such pair of recesses, and permit also the interchange of mounting of other components, achieving a desired reversal of bowl-actuation and correspondingly a reversal of work-feedtravel.

The above description is generally introductory in character; more specific details of the inventive concepts and features are given in the more detailed description which follows, of an embodiment to illustrate the inventive concepts, reference being had to the accompanying somewhat schematic and diagrammatic drawings, in which:

Hg. 1 is a pictorial view of a rotary vibrator according to an embodiment of the inventive concepts;

FIG. 2 is a fragmental, larger-scale plan view of the supporting assembly which supports the vibrator bowl shown in FIG.

FIG. 3 is a fragmental elevational view, partly in section to illustrate interior details, of the vibrator shown in FIG. I; and

FIG. 4 is a fragmental view similar to a portion of FIG. 3, but with the components arranged to give a work-feeding actuation in a direction reverse to that which is shown in FIGS. 1 through 3.

As shown in the drawings, the invention relates to a rotary vibrator having a reaction mass or base 12, and a workfeeding bowl 14. In a rotary vibrator of the type of this illustrative embodiment, vibration imparted to the bowl 14 causes work-objects (not shown) to move along a peripheral ramp 16 which lies in a spiral configuration along the inner wall of the bowl 14 to an upper or discharge location 18, where they may be acted upon by associated conveyor and/or sorting or arranging means (not shown) as desired.

Vibration of the bowl 14 is caused, electrically, by a coil 20 carried by base-supported components, and an armature 22 secured to the upper or bowl-connected components. Here the connection of the coil 20 to the base 12 is by the coil 20 being carried by a bracket 24 secured as by bolts 26 threaded into corresponding openings 28 provided on the reaction base 12; and the armature 22 is secured as by bolts 30 threaded into corresponding openings 32 provided on a bowl-supporting arm member 34 yet to be described.

Vibration of the reaction mass or base 12 is accommodated by it being mounted on flexible pads shown as resilient feet 35; and vibration of the bowl I4 is accommodated by its support legs 36 being made of resilient or spring-like stock. Work-feed of the work-objects (not shown) along the bowl-ramp I6 is achieved by the support springs 36 being positioned at an angle (here shown as approximately to the vertical; and there are shown four such springs 36 spaced equally around the bowl 14. All the springs 36 are inclined in the same rotational direction.

As so far detailed, the components as such form no part of the inventive concepts, and are shown for better background understanding of the inventive concepts now to be set forth.

According to the inventive concepts, the support springs 36 are connected to the base 12 at a relatively very low location of the base 12. Substantially the entire height of the base I2 is added, in effect, to the distance between the base 12 and the bowl 14, for the accommodation of the support springs 36.

This low spring mounting permits a relatively long spring length, with a corresponding advantage of good operational character and long-life fatigue-resistant quality, and yet it avoids a correspondingly highness or tallness of the overall vibrator assembly. The low overall height, or a so-called lowsilhouette of the overall device, permits its use in applications where, for one or more reasons, a higher discharge location would be undesirable.

According to other details of the inventive concepts, the device is reversible so as to obtain a work-feed direction of the work-objects in either rotational direction desired. This reversibility will now be detailed, it being noted preliminarily that the work-feed direction in FIGS. I, 2, and 3 is counterclockwise as the device is viewed from above, and in FIG. 4 is clockwise as viewed in that manner.

As shown in FIG. 2, the bowl-support assembly comprises four of the arms 34, they being all connected to a central hollow hub or bracket 38, each arm 34 shown connected thereto by a single bolt 40 which outwardly extends through the wall of the bracket 38 and into a radially-extending threaded hole 42 ofthe arm 34.

The upper end of each spring 36 is provided with a bolt 44 which is threaded into a threaded opening 46 of the arm 34. The opening 46 extends clear through the arm 34; thus as the arm is selectively twisted (compare FIGS. 3 and 4 with respect to orientation of the arm 34), as is readily accommodated by the single-spot connection by bolt 40 of the arm 34 and cen tral bracket 38, either end of the arm-opening 46 is oriented downwardly to receive the associated spring bolt 44.

The lower end of each spring 36 is not connected directly to the reaction base 12, but, instead, is connected thereto by the threaded connection of a bolt 48 to a mounting lug 50 which fits in a recess 51 of the base 12, the lug 50 rather than the spring 36 being directly connected to the base 12. More specifically, the connection of the lug 50 to base 12 is by a pair of bolts 52 which respectively extend downwardlythrough an opening 54 provided in the base 12 and thence threadedly into an upwardly directed opening 56 provided in the mounting lug In mirror-image relationship, there are provided a recess 51 and base-opening 54 in both oppositely facing directions; thus, to achieve reversibility of the mounting of the springs 36 to the base 12 (compare FIGS. 3 and 4), the bolts 52 which engage downwardly into the lug-openings 56 are selectively passed through a selected pair of the base-openings 54.

Moreover, an oppositely facing extra set of base-openings 28 is provided for selectively receiving the bolts 26 which support the vibrator coil bracket 24. This provides that the direction faced by the vibrator coil may be readily reversed.

Cooperating with the reversibility components already mentioned, the arm-openings 32 extend clear through the arm 34, thus accommodating the armature bolts 30 to connect the armature 22 to the arm 34 on either side of the arm 34, to operatively confront the coil 20 regardless of which direction the coil bracket 24 is positioned to face.

The outer end of each arm 34 is provided with a radially directed opening 58 by which a bowl-gripping lug 60 is connected to the arm 34 by a bolt 62.

Reversibility of work-feed direction is thus easily achieved (compare FIGS. 3 and 4) by the following steps: Loosening the bowl-mounting lug-bolts 62; removing the bowl l4; loosening the inner arm-bolts 40; removing the upper spring bolts 44, the base-bolts 52 to free the lugs 50, and the coil bracket bolts, 26 and armature bolts 30. The arms 34 are twisted about the axes of bolts 40. Then the bolts 52 and 26 are respectively positioned into the other base-openings 54 and 28; and the bolts 44 and 30 are respectively positioned into the other ends of the arm-openings 46 and 32. The various bolts are then tightened, using a bowl 14 whose ramp 16 is of opposite hand; and the operativity of work-feed is thus reversed.

lt is thus seen that a rotary vibratory feeder provides novel and advantageous concepts and features of construction and operation, including low bowl-spring mounting permitting longer spring-length without increase of overall device height, and reversibility of the bowl-supporting and bowl-energizing components to provide reversibility of the direction of workfeed.

Accordingly, it will thus be seen from the foregoing description of the invention according to this illustrative embodiment, considered with the accompanying drawings, that the present invention provides a new and useful rotary type vibratory feeder, having desired advantages and characteristics, and accomplishing its intended objects, including those hereinbefore pointed out and others which are inherent in the invention. 7

Modifications and variations may be effected without departing from the scope of the novel concepts of the invention; accordingly, the invention is not limited to the specific form or arrangement of parts herein described or shown.

We claim:

1. A vibratory feeder of rotary type having a base, a bowl means, vibration means for imparting vibratory energy to the bowl means, and support springs which support the bowl means from the base:

in a combination in which the springs are connected to the base at a position adjacent the bottom thereof, the spring length being of such a length as to extend from that said position upwardly throughout the height of the base and also the distance above the base at which the spring is connected to the bowl means, yet the overall height of the device being relatively short by having a substantial portion of the overall spring length being disposed within the vertical limits of the base;

the combination also providing a mounting lug for the said springs adjacent the bottom thereof, and there are connecting means for interconnecting the said lugs to the base;

the bowl means includes a bowl-support means;

' the bowl-support means is provided with means by which the springs are adapted to be supportingly connected thereto in either of at least two positions of each spring; and

and the connecting means for interconnecting the mounting lugs to the base accommodate a supporting connection thereof in said two positions of each spring.

2 A vibratory feeder of rotary type having a base, a bowl means, vibration means for imparting vibratory energy to the bowl means, and support springs which support the bowl means from the base:

in a combination in which there are provided, for each of said springs, selectively usable mounting positions of the base;

and there are also provided selectively usable mountings of the said vibration means;

all said selectively usable means cooperating to provide that the achieved work-feeding of objects positioned in the said bowl means can be caused to progress in either rotational direction desired; and

there are provided bowl-supporting means including radially disposed support arms, there being provided holes in said arms for the selective reception of connectors which engage the upper ends of said springs, the said arms being rotatable with respect to their respective radial axes to receive in said openings the said connectors regardless of the position of said springs as positioned to achieve either direction of work-feed travel.

3. The invention as set forth in claim 2, in a combination in which:

mounting means are provided by which the lower end of each spring is operatively securable to the base by a connection means which extends operatively between the said mounting means and the selected one of the selectively usable mounting positions of the base;

and in which the base is provided with selectively usable means operatively engageable by the connection means to retain the lower end of the spring to the base with the spring oriented in either selected position in which it achieves the particular one of the directions of work-feed travel desired.

4. The invention as set forth in claim 3, in a combination in which:

the said selectively usable base means includes a pair of selectively usable holes provided in the base, and the con nection means extends through either selected one thereof.

5. The invention as set forth in claim 2, in a combination in which:

the said arm holes respectively extend fully through the said arms to accommodate the selective reception thereinto of the respective one of the said connectors at each end of the hole, the selective orientation of the said arms accommodating the respective spring in an orientation to achieve the particular direction of work-feed travel desired.

6. The invention as set forth in claim 2, in a combination in which:

The springs are connected to the base at a position adjacent the bottom thereof, the spring length being of such a length as to extend from that said position upwardly throughout the height of the base and also the distance above the base at which the spring is connected to the bowl means, yet the overall height of the device being relatively short by having a substantial portion of the overall spring length being disposed within the vertical limits of the base. 

